Nun killed in Democratic Republic of Congo

Nun at the prayer vigil for consecrated life in St. Peter's Square, Jan. 28, 2016. Credit: Alexey Gotovskiy.

Rome, Italy, Dec 2, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A nun in the Democratic Republic of Congo was murdered earlier this week by unknown suspects in an apparent robbery, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions has reported.

Sister Marie Claire Agano, a religious of the Franciscan Congregation of Christ the King, was killed the afternoon of Nov. 29 in her office of the vocational training center at the Mater Dei parish of Bakavu.

The pontifical institute's “World and Mission” magazine wrote that Sister Marie Claire was victim of “an assault with a gun, probably by bandits who wanted to rob her.”

World and Mission noted that the nun joins a list of religious in Africa who have given their lives for the Gospel, such as the elderly religious Olga Raschietti, Lucia Pulici and Bernardetta Boggian. All three were murdered in 2014 in Burundi, after having worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1996, Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa was murdered by Rwandan soldiers in the brutal Congo Wars, which raged over eight years, involved multiple nations and claimed millions of lives.